


Just a Taste

by midoriverte



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Emetophobia, Fluff, Hidekane Week, Hidekane Week 2017, M/M, day 4: baking together, nothing explicit but Kaneki is a ghoul eating human food, so you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 14:01:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11899257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midoriverte/pseuds/midoriverte
Summary: Kaneki goes into a bakery to run an errand for Yoriko and immediately falls head over heels for the incredibly cute baker who keeps offering him free samples.Too bad Kaneki is a ghoul and can't taste any of it.





	Just a Taste

**Author's Note:**

> beta'd by sondeneige

Kaneki cursed his inability to say no as he stood in line at the bakery. He tried to pull his scarf up over his nose so he couldn’t smell bread and various other… _things_ that were being baked around him, but it was so warm inside the bakery that it soon made him uncomfortable.

At least the line was moving quickly. He could soon get out of this cinnamon-scented hell. Damn Yoriko for not being able to go on her usual baked goods run. Damn Touka for having classes and not being able to do it for her. Damn them both giving him the _look_ that said he was going to be asked for a favour.

He looked down at the paper in his hands. Mostly just bread for the week. And éclairs.

“Next!” called the voice from behind the counter. Kaneki moved to the front of the line and realised as he did so that he was the last customer in the store.

“What can I get for you?” The man behind the counter asked cheerily. More cheerily than Kaneki thought anyone had a right to be in this place.

Kaneki looked up and found that the man was actually kind of… cute. A bright smile and even brighter hair to match. Warm, brown eyes. Sleeves rolled up to show arms that had the last remnants of a summer tan…

 _Stop that_ , he told himself firmly. _Buy your bread_.

“Sir?” the man prompted.

Startled, Kaneki forgot everything that he had come here for and wordlessly handed the man the list.

Looking politely bemused, he took the list.

“It’s for a friend!” Kaneki said both loudly and unnecessarily. Why did he say things when he didn’t need to and not say things when he was supposed to.

“Of course,” the man joked as he busied himself getting the things on Yoriko’s list. “I’d never dream that a man of such dignity would stoop to eating _éclairs_.”

He winked at Kaneki as he put his bag of bread and pastries on the counter and started ringing it up on the cash register.

Kaneki knew he was being teased but he couldn’t bring himself to mind, he seemed to be teasing him in a friendly sort of way.

He felt his face getting a little warm.

“Does a man of such dignity want to try a free sample of chocolate croissants?” he asked casually.

“S-sorry?” Kaneki asked.

“You,” he clarified. “I baked some chocolate croissants. Do you want one?”

“I…” The real answer was “please God no” but the man was giving him such a sweet and pleading look, like he really wanted him to taste his croissant.

“Yes,” Kaneki said, hating himself for the decision already.

It hadn’t quite occurred to him that the man was going to expect him to eat it in front of him. But the second the bit of croissant was in his hand he knew that was what he wanted. Steeling himself for the suffering, he put it in his mouth.

It was too big to swallow whole, so he ended up actually having to taste and chew the awful thing.

“How was it?” the man asked.

“Really good!” Kaneki lied. He searched his brain for words he often heard Yoriko use when she talked about food. “It was really soft and… buttery?”

“Thanks,” the man smiled brightly. “I’ll give you one for free.”

Kaneki tried to protest, but he was already putting the croissant in the bag.

“Thanks,” Kaneki said.

“My name’s Hide, by the way.”

“K-Kaneki,” he replied, unsure why they were introducing themselves but not minding the development at all.

The door behind them opened and another customer walked in.  Kaneki turned to leave regretfully.

“I’ll probably have more free samples next time,” Hide said quickly. “If you want.”

“I would like that,” Kaneki said, truthfully.

He walked into Anteiku with his bag of groceries. Touka was behind the counter and Yoriko was sitting with a cup of coffee in front of her.

“Thanks, Kaneki!” she said gratefully as he handed her the bag.

“I think I should go pick up your bread from there from now on,” Kaneki said quickly.

“Huh?’ Yoriko said at the same time Touka said “Kaneki, what the hell?”

“It’s just. The guy behind the counter said that he wanted me to come and try free samples again. So it would be weird if I didn’t, right?” Kaneki rambled, fully aware that nothing he said was making any sense.

“ _What_?” Touka demanded.

“Was it the blond guy?” Yoriko asked.

“Y-yes?” Kaneki was surprised she had guessed it.

He didn’t like the look of understanding that crossed her face as she said, “He’s pretty cute.”

“My God,” Touka said, disgusted “You’re telling me a cashier flirted with him for thirty seconds and he fell in love?”

“I did not!” Kaneki said, though his face was burning from embarrassment.

“Did he throw in this croissant?” Yoriko asked, looking in the bag.

“Y-yeah. He gave me a free sample and I said I liked it so…”

“Wow,” Touka said. “You _ate_ it? You’re hopeless.”

“Well what could I say?” Kaneki despaired. “‘No I can’t I’m a ghoul?’”

“I’m allergic to chocolate?” Touka suggested, sarcastically.

“I’m on a diet!” Yoriko chimed in helpfully.

“He sees one pretty face and loses his head completely,” Touka said.

“Guys,” Kaneki begged.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll stop making fun of you now,” Touka sighed. “Go throw up so you don’t get a stomach ache.”

Despite saying she would stop making fun of him. Touka certainly gave him a judgmental look as he went to the bakery again the next week.

Kaneki may or may not have asked Yoriko what the quietest time at this bakery was so that he could ensure he had Hide to himself (not that he told her that, but the look she gave him told him that she knew).

Hide looked delighted to see Kaneki walk in.

He was somehow even cuter than Kaneki remembered. Maybe that was because his hair was mussed up and all over the place. And he was wearing a light pink apron. And he was covered in flour, it was even on his face.

The temptation to reach over and help him wipe it off was really strong.

“Are you baking?” Kaneki asked, before immediately wanting to punch himself in the face. Of course he was. It was a bakery.

“Yeah,” Hide said, ignoring how stupid that question sounded.

Kaneki handed him his list and Hide smiled.

“I’ve got some great stuff for you to try today!”

Kaneki’s grin got a little strained, but he still managed to look enthusiastic.

Since the shop was quiet, Hide took it upon himself to give him a bunch of different things to try. Apparently picking a bunch of his favourites to see how Kaneki liked them.

He managed to eat it all. But when Hide pulled out what Kaneki was sure was his tenth sample he finally couldn’t take it anymore.

“I’ll spoil my dinner!” he said with more genuine alarm than was necessary.

Hide raised his eyebrows but said, “Then I’ll just put it in your bag for later!”

Hide put what Kaneki was pretty sure was a scone in his bag and Kaneki breathed a sigh of relief that he didn’t have to eat it.

About an hour later, Touka stood outside the bathroom door as Kaneki suffered the consequences of his flirting with Hide.

“Why don’t you flirt without eating all the samples?” she asked in exasperation.

“It’s an important part of it,” Kaneki mumbled in misery as he stepped out of the bathroom. “I almost dropped my glasses in the toilet.”

“You poor thing,” Yoriko piped up from the front of the café, while eating the scone Hide made.

“Don’t encourage this idiot!”

“I think it’s sweet.”

“Me or the scone?” Kaneki asked weakly.

“Both,” Yoriko said. “Do you want me to tell you what’s good about this scone so you can report back to Hide next week?”

“Yes please.”

The next week, Kaneki impressed Hide with a rave review of his scone, which Kaneki had memorized from the notes Yoriko left him.

“Well if you liked it that much, I have other kinds of scones I’ve been experimenting with. I made savoury ones too!”

“That… sounds amazing,” Kaneki’s stomach already hurt in anticipation of the suffering he was going to put it through.

Several weeks went by in the same manner. They had gone far past the point when it would have been acceptable for Kaneki to tell Hide about being a ghoul. He had created a lie and he was going to see it through to the end if it killed him.

And it might just kill him considering how sick he always felt after.

Kaneki bit rather miserably into a cupcake.

“It’s good,” Kaneki said. “Light and fluffy.”

“You have a bit of icing on your cheek,” Hide smiled at the praise.

Kaneki tried to wipe it off.

“No, the other cheek. Here-” Hide reached over and used his thumb to wipe the icing off his cheek. To Kaneki’s complete and utter shock, Hide licked the icing off his thumb.

Hide’s eyes widened in shock. He clearly hadn’t meant to do that. The two of them stood there frozen.

“Oh my God, that was super inappropriate, I’m so sorry,” Hide babbled.

“N-no don’t worry about it,” Kaneki said quickly, his face burning. He didn’t know what to add to that. _Don’t worry I thought it was hot_ was the most honest yet probably most creepy answer he could give.

“I- I just,” Hide looked so flustered and unsure of himself. It was adorable but also made Kaneki want to hug him and comfort him. Though he supposed that would just make it a lot worse.

“I mean it,” Kaneki insisted. “I know you didn’t mean to—”

“I just…,” Hide sighed. “I think this isn’t the best time to say this but I, uh, really appreciate you trying all the things I make.”

“Th-thanks?” Kaneki said, unsure of where this was going.

“I mean it!” Hide said emphatically. “I love seeing you enjoy the things I make.”

 _Oh God_. Kaneki thought. _I can’t tell him now._

“Well, I’m glad you give them to me.” Despite the misery it caused him, Kaneki meant it. The fact that Hide kept giving him treats, kept baking things specifically for _him_ , made him indescribably happy.

“I mean,” Kaneki added with a slight laugh. “I can’t bake at all, so everything you make is impressive to me.”

“If you want,” Hide said hesitantly. “You could come over to my place sometime? We could bake together.”

“H-huh?” Kaneki said.

“Think of it as… a private baking lesson,” Hide was going very red and Kaneki was sure he matched. “O-only if you want!” Hide added quickly, seeing Kaneki’s slight frown.

Inside, Kaneki was panicking just a little. If he went to Hide’s house specifically to bake, he would presumably be eating a lot. Would he be able to hide how ill Hide’s baking made him?

“I’d love to,” Kaneki said with a smile. Of course he would.

Hide grinned. “It’s a date, then!” He seemed to realize what he had said just a second too late. “Uh, well, I mean. It’s a lesson?”

“R-right,” Kaneki said, fidgeting nervously.

After picking a date and time, Kaneki left the little bakery, once again overladen with baked goods he could not appreciate, and wondering how he was supposed to survive their lesson-date.

“You’re going to die,” Nishiki said blandly, overhearing Kaneki describing his date plans to Touka, as though he didn’t care whether or not Kaneki actually did die.

“How does Nishiki know about this?” Kaneki demanded furiously.

“We told him,” Touka said, wiping down the counters and not even looking at Kaneki.

“Why?” Kaneki was distressed.

“It’s really funny,” Touka shrugged.

“It is not! I’m in distress!”

Touka turned to look at him, she didn’t say anything, but her look plainly said his distress was what made it so funny.

“He’s going to find out eventually,” Nishiki added. Apparently now that he was in on the latest gossip he felt he had a right to comment on Kaneki’s personal problems.

“He hasn’t yet,” Kaneki said, a note of desperation in his voice. “Maybe I can keep faking it?”

“Do you want to date him?” Nishiki was direct as always.

“Well,” Kaneki blushed a little. Despite all the teasing, no one had actually ever asked him this. “I mean… obviously.”

“And you think you can do that without him ever finding out you’re a ghoul.” His tone implied that he was not impressed with Kaneki’s intelligence. But Kaneki could have sworn there was a note of concern, or sympathy, in his voice. He remembered, suddenly, that Nishiki was dating a human, and he knew all too well the kind of situation he was in.

Not that Kaneki was about to ask him for advice. But at least he knew someone knew what he was going through.

He didn’t give Nishiki an answer, not that he thought Nishiki was really expecting one.

As spent his evening laying out clothes and trying to decide what to wear even though his date was still two days from now, Nishiki’s words echoed in his mind. If he wanted to date Hide, and he very much did, then Hide would have to know eventually.

Hide would have to know he couldn’t taste any of his food.

Not that he wasn’t scared of Hide thinking he was a monster, but this part seemed almost worse to him somehow. He had spent weeks lying to Hide, telling him his food was good when he had no idea. Could Hide ever forgive him for that? Could someone who clearly loved baking for people so much even want to date someone who couldn’t taste it?

Kaneki tried not to think about that.

He arrived at Hide’s apartment exactly fifteen minutes before the date was supposed to start. He didn’t have time to panic about being too early before he had knocked on the door, and he probably wouldn’t have had the time between panicking about whether his outfit looked okay, whether this date that was actually a baking lesson would go well, whether or not this date-lesson would kill him, and whether or not Hide was going to find out he was a ghoul and hate him.

“Hi!” Hide said brightly, opening the door.

“Ahhh?” Kaneki let out a strangled sound by way of greeting.

Hide blinked. “H-hi?” he said again, sounding a bit less cheery.

“Hi!” Kaneki said, a little too loudly for it not to be weird.

Hide shifted awkwardly for a second but said, “Do you want to come in?”

“Y-yeah.” Kaneki walked through the door as Hide stepped aside for him.

“Sorry if it’s a little messy,” Hide said, rubbing the back of his head nervously. “I tried to clean up before you got here but…”

The small apartment wasn’t exactly neat, but it was cluttered in a cozy way. It looked lived-in.

When he looked back at Hide, he noticed that Hide was giving him a nervous smile, as though he was waiting Kaneki’s judgement.

“It’s a nice apartment,” Kaneki said. And Hide beamed.

If Kaneki had been in the proper frame of mind, he might have been comforted by the fact that Hide was just as nervous as he was. As it was, Kaneki’s heart was nearly pounding out of his chest with anxiety about all the ways he could possibly ruin this. With all the ways this could go wrong and the very few ways it could go right, Kaneki was statistically much more likely to ruin this.

“Uh, Kaneki?” Hide’s voice snapped him out of his brooding.

“Y-yes?”

“Uh, I said do you want to get started?”

Kaneki stared at him.

“With the baking?” Hide prompted.

“O-oh! Yes. I do.” _Pay attention, come on, Kaneki_ , he chided himself.

“Great!” Hide said. And Kaneki felt his heart pound, not with anxiety, but with the thought of just how damn cute Hide was.

“I thought I’d start you off with something easy,” Hide went on. “You said you didn’t know how to bake at all, right?”

“Right,” Kaneki nodded.

“So I figured we’d start with chocolate chip cookies.”

Kaneki swallowed. “Sounds great,” he lied, and he could only hope it sounded genuine.

Hide bustled around his tiny kitchen while Kaneki trailed behind him. Kaneki noticed that the kitchen was the neatest place in the apartment, and figured that since Hide baked all the time be probably had to keep the kitchen clean for health and safety reasons.

Hide pulled out the ingredients and the equipment needed.

“Bowl. Spoons. Measuring cup,” Hide said. “It’s all very technical, stop me if I’m going too fast,” Hide winked.

“However will I remember it all?” Kaneki asked sarcastically.

Hide laughed.

“Like I said, I’m going easy on you because it’s your first time, I’ll be much harder on you later on.” he said it in such an offhanded tone that Kaneki couldn’t tell if he had meant it to sound like it had or if it was just his perverted mind making him think like that.

Either way, he buried his face in his hands when Hide’s back was turned.

It turned out Hide’s preferred method of teaching was to give Kaneki orders and correct him when he screwed up. Which was often. For all Hide had said about it being an easy recipe, Kaneki truly did not know how to bake at all.

“Teaspoon!” Hide said in alarm as Kaneki was about to dump a lot more salt into the mix than needed.

“Baking powder, not soda!”

“Is there a difference?” Kaneki looked at the two nearly-identical white powders.

“Yes, and in fact I only took out the powder for you, I have… no idea how you got that soda without me noticing,” Hide frowned.

Kaneki measured out the proper amount of powder.

His lack of experience in baking also showed in how clumsy he was. There was flour and other powdery (soda-y?) substances all over the counter and the floor.

“You have flour in your hair,” Hide laughed, as he ruffled Kaneki’s hair and a shower of powder fell off.

Kaneki looked at himself in the shiny surface of Hide’s toaster.

“I look like an old man,” Kaneki said.

“It’s adorable,” Hide said, with a smile that was definitely fond.

Kaneki coughed nervously. “S-so, what do we do next?”

“Chocolate chips!” Hide grinned. “The best part.” Hide grabbed the bag of chocolate chips and Kaneki was sure he was going to pour it in the bowl, but instead poured some in his hand.

“Want some?”

“O-oh,” Kaneki tried to mask his nervousness. “I really don’t think I should.”

“Come on, getting to sneak the good parts is the best part of baking!”

“I, well, okay,” Kaneki’s willpower faded under Hide’s enthusiasm and took some chocolate chips in his hand. Luckily, they were small enough that he could swallow them whole like pills without tasting them.

“Maybe I do that a little too much,” Hide said with laugh. “That’s why I have a bit of extra, uh, _padding_.” Hide pinched his side ruefully.

“I think it’s cute,” Kaneki said quickly. Hide looked taken aback and went red instantly.

“Uh, well, thanks,” Hide said. Kaneki probably should have been embarrassed, but he could only thank whatever gods existed that he had changed course halfway through the sentence and not said what he was about to, which was that it was sexy.

Very, very sexy.

“So… how many chocolate chips?” Kaneki tried to distract from the awkwardness.

Hide unceremoniously dumped the entire bag into the bowl.

“Lots,” Hide said.

Next came the wet ingredients. Hide tried to demonstrate the proper way to crack an egg, which looked easy when he did it but when Kaneki did it he smashed the whole thing and they had to dig shell out of the batter.

“It… takes practice,” Hide said, clearly trying not to laugh. “I’ve never seen someone explode an egg into a bowl before though.”

“H-hey!” Kaneki said indignantly.

Kaneki then had to mix it. He felt like this should have been the easy part, but he somehow found a way to screw it up too.

Hide grabbed his wrist and began to guide his hand. “You’ve got to make sure you get all the wet stuff mixed in with the dry stuff and not sitting on the bottom of the bowl.”

Kaneki nodded, pretending he understood, but he was very distracted by the fact that Hide was pressed right up against his back.

They got the cookies in the oven.

“So, is my lesson over?” Kaneki smirked.

“Not quite yet,” Hide said. “I won’t let you get off that easily.”

Kaneki admonished his perverted mind. “So, what are we doing next?”

“Well,” Hide said. “I promised I’d bake a cake for my aunt’s birthday, so you’re going to watch me do that. And then I’m going to make a little extra so we can have cupcakes to go along with our cookies.”

“A nice, balanced meal.”

“Precisely.”

Kaneki marvelled as he watched Hide work. He did everything with such speed and finesse. Kaneki had eaten so much of his baking but had never actually seen him do it. No wonder Yoriko loved his food so much.

He wished, more than ever, that he could taste what Hide baked for him. He thought of all the work that must have gone into the treats Hide made him and he felt terrible for lying to Hide all this time that he had enjoyed them. Even though Kaneki knew it wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t taste it, he still felt like he had failed Hide somehow.

Hide took out the cookies to cool and put the cake and cupcakes into the oven.

Hide grabbed a cookie fresh off the pan.

“You’ll burn your mouth!” Kaneki warned.

“My mouth is powerful,” Hide said, shoving the gooey cookie into his mouth. He was really going to have to stop making comments like that.

“You have melted chocolate all over your face now,” Kaneki sighed. He wiped it off with his thumb, in a similar gesture to when Hide had done the same to him.

They both glanced away, embarrassed but slightly pleased with themselves.

They sat and chatted a bit. It was mostly awkward small talk, about their jobs, their lives.

“They’ve cooled down now,” Hide said. “You should have a cookie.”

There was no getting out of it, was there? Kaneki tried not to grimace behind Hide’s back as he put the cookies on a plate for them and sat down with it at the table.

It became abundantly clear that Kaneki could not get away with eating just one. Every time Hide grabbed one, Kaneki went for one too. Soon he had eaten four cookies and he was sure he was going to die.

“Cupcakes are ready!” Hide said happily as a timer he had set dinged.

“Yay,” Kaneki mumbled.

Hide showed him how to make icing, which Kaneki only half paid attention to because he was concentrating on not throwing up.

“I’ll just do something simple for the cupcakes since we’re the ones eating them. I’ll do something more fancy for the cake when you’re not here and I can concentrate,” he added with a wink.

They waited for a bit until the cupcakes cooled down enough to ice without it all melting off. Hide let Kaneki try but he ended up just squeezing the icing out of the end of the bag thingy (he had not been listening when Hide told him what it was called).

Hide mercifully took over and iced the cupcakes while Kaneki watched. If nothing else, Kaneki could enjoy the sight of Hide licking icing off his fingers. That was nice.

It finally came time to eat the cupcakes. Kaneki stared at them ruefully. Those fluffy cup-shaped chocolate mounds of destruction.

He ate one when Hide did, mumbling insincere words that assured him he found the cupcakes delicious rather than repulsive. Somehow the icing made the experience so much worse, it made the cake stick to the roof of his mouth and he had to taste it much more than he normally would have.

Hide reached for a second one, and Kaneki was momentarily amazed by the amount he could eat in one sitting (was that a baker thing or a Hide thing?), before realizing he should probably reach for a second one himself.

Later, Kaneki would reflect on how he could have told Hide he was full or that he didn’t want any more. But he didn’t think of it at the time, and it turned out to be his undoing.

He took one bite and felt his stomach finally revolt.

“Nope,” Kaneki said. Immediately springing from the chair and dashing through Hide’s hall until he mercifully found his bathroom.

“Kaneki!” Hide burst into the bathroom after Kaneki, looking alarmed, to find Kaneki kneeling on the floor in front of his toilet.

“I’m sorry,” Kaneki mumbled after retching into the toilet. “I failed you.”

“Are you… okay?” Hide kneeled down beside Kaneki and started rubbing his back. “You’re not allergic to something are you? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Poor, precious Hide thought this was his fault. There was a part of Kaneki that almost wanted Hide to blame himself rather than admit his shameful secret, but he knew he had to.

“Hide,” Kaneki turned to Hide with tears streaming down his face.

Hide looked even more alarmed than he had before.

“I’m a-” He couldn’t do this. Hide would hate him and he’d never be able to show his face in his bakery again.

He looked at Hide with pleading eyes. Pleading for what he didn’t know. Mercy? Understanding?

“Are you a ghoul?’ Hide asked, as simply as if he was asking about the weather.

Kaneki turned to throw up in the toilet again.

Hide patiently rubbed his back until Kaneki calmed down. It felt really nice.

Finally, Kaneki regained his composure and courage enough to say. “Yeah, I am.” He still avoided looking at Hide as he said it.

He didn’t know if he expected Hide to shrink away, to stop rubbing his back, to tell him to get out of his house.

“Why didn’t you tell me,” Hide said, sounding sad. “I made you eat so many things!”

“You’re not… mad?”

“Well,” Hide said slowly. “I’m a little mad, but only because I don’t get why you kept letting me feed you things that were making you sick.”

“You don’t h-hate me?”  Kaneki said, close to tearing up again.

“Why would I hate you?” Precious, sweet Hide sounded genuinely shocked at the notion.

“Because I’m a ghoul.” A few tears trickled down his cheeks.

“Hey,” Hide said firmly. He pulled Kaneki into a hug and Kaneki buried his face in Hide’s neck. He smelled good, underneath the baking scents. “That’s not something you can help. And it’s not a bad thing to be. You’re just a person.”

“But I can’t eat anything you bake.”

“That’s fine, I don’t care about that,” Hide said.

“But every time we’ve talked, you gave me stuff to eat-”

“That’s just because I wanted an excuse to talk to you,” Hide said, smiling gently. “You came in and you were so cute, I wanted to get your attention somehow.”

“I thought you were cute too,” Kaneki said shyly.

“Wanna get away from the toilet and have a proper conversation?” Hide said.

“Yeah.”

The wandered back into the kitchen after Kaneki thoroughly rinsed his mouth out.

“I’ll make us both a coffee,” Kaneki said. “I may not be able to bake but I know how to make a good cup of coffee, being a ghoul and all,” he added with an attempt at a laugh.

“Well, what do you know,” Hide said. “I can’t make coffee to save my life, so we make a perfect team.”

Kaneki smiled as he busied himself around Hide’s kitchen. He made them each a cup of coffee and only grimaced a little when Hide loaded his with milk and sugar.

Not that Hide didn’t notice Kaneki’s expression. “What can I say?” he said with a wink. “I like my coffee like I like my men, sweet and piping hot.”

Kaneki’s mouth dropped open. “Hide! That was horrible!”

“You liked it,” Hide said.

Kaneki refused to confirm or deny it. Which meant he did.

“This is really good,” Hide said, taking a sip of his coffee.

“Thanks,” Kaneki said. “I would hope so, considering I work at a coffee shop.”

“I’d like to go one day,” Hide said.

“I’d… like that too.”

The two of them stared into their cups for a moment.

“So…” Hide said. “You wanna tell me why you didn’t tell me about the ghoul thing?”

Kaneki sighed. “I don’t know… so many people still really hate ghouls and…and you’re a human and,” he ran a hand through his hair in agitation. “I wanted you to like me.”

“I already liked you,” Hide said gently.

“And then I lied and said I liked your baking and then I was in way too deep.”

Hide laughed.

“You did a good job.”

“I got Yoriko to tell me what to say about your food.”

“Is that why she stopped coming, you took her place?” Hide grinned.

Kaneki nodded. “Yeah, something like that.” He stared back down into his coffee. “Did you seriously never suspect anything?”

“I mean… some of your comments were a little weird sometimes. I’m guessing the ones Yoriko didn’t help you with.”

“Like what?”

“Like describing a muffin as squishy.”

“Are they not?”

“That’s not the first word that generally comes to mind.”

“Oh.”

“I didn’t think you were a ghoul though. I thought you were just kind of weird.”

Kaneki smiled sadly. “I think that’s also probably true.”

“I think it’s in a good way,” Hide smiled.

Kaneki sighed in relief.

“So… where do we go from here?” Kaneki said.

“Well. Ideally I’d like to date you.”

Kaneki choked on his coffee.

“Still?” He asked. “Even after knowing I’m a ghoul.”

Hide shrugged. “Yeah, if you don’t care I’m a human.”

“I don’t,” Kaneki smiled. “I’m sorry I can’t eat your baked goods.”

“It’s all right,” Hide grinned. “You can just share them with your friends.”

“All my friends are ghouls too.”

“Oh,” Hide frowned. “I guess just share them with Yoriko then.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Kaneki said.

“So how about a date, now that we’ve got that sorted out? We can go out for coffee, so you can have something too.”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Kaneki said gratefully.

They smiled at each other, both a little nervous and a lot excited. Kaneki was relieved that Hide knew what he was but still wanted to be with him. That the thought of hating him had never once occurred to Hide seemed like a miracle.

“Want another cookie?” Hide said with an evil grin.

“ _Hide_!”

Kaneki was also grateful that he didn’t have to eat Hide’s baking ever again.

 


End file.
